Saturday, May 1, 2010

Fountains of Bellagio- Las Vegas

After Noodles, it was off to sleep for me. A very uncomfortable one at that. "Now how could that happen, EatTravelEat?" you may ask. Well, the beds were different. Like most U.S. hotels, Bellagio uses a ultra soft pillowtop bed, but in this case it was quite old and the cushioning was softer at other parts where most people weigh more. I am used to a firm bed so this was a complete difference. Anyway, thus I woke up at sunrise, and since I was quite bored, what else could I do? Look at the window! Besides, we scored a great excellent spot in the Bellagio thanks from the VIP folks: the furthest right suite on the 35th floor, facing the fountains. Not asking for special requests and being nice is the formula for a nice room with a good view!

I was particularly lucky, as at this time of day, they were doing maintenance and thus the fountains needed to be operated to see if there were any flaws. So, I got a nice show to watch from the room. At first it was not anything enticing as only a few jets were running, but it got better.

Here is probably the best picture I took of the fountains! The water looked so elegant and beautiful. Now only if the fake balcony was not there (part of any room on the 35th floor). Did not feel stable to stand up on top of the sofa chair as it was way too soft.

Here is yet another picture, but not as great. A side note: have you ever seen Las Vegas Blvd. this empty? I haven't! Exactly the reason why it is the best time to do maintenance- no one will see it thinking it is a show!

During the day, here is how the Fountains look like, not in action. Do you spot some maintenance going on near the center of the fountains?

Now for some more information about the Fountains of Bellagio. They go on every 30 minutes in the afternoon, and every 15 minutes during the night. You can spot this by looking at your watch, or listening to a toilet flush sound. At least that worked in our room 80 percent of the time! Toilet flush sound= start of the show. They consist of a piece of music in which the movements of the fountains follow. Here is a video, taken during the afternoon:

Not the best video but you can see it! First video taken on the Nikon D90 that is posted on the web too! This was not a easy video as not only was I standing on a chair, I held the camera above my head. So, within the course of a minute, I started to get tired and hence the multiple shakes. I did however get better by the time I shot my second video.

During the night, I used the same tactic to shoot photos and videos too. Live View did not give me the best results, but there were quite a few successes as well. But see the lamp? That is a reflection of the glass. Sorry. If you thought that white lampshade was part of the Strip, you're not alone, as I first thought so too when I looked back at the pictures. :)

Picture number 2 was the center shooting the water in a counterclockwise/clockwise pattern. Do not look at the right corner to see the NSFW Planet Hollywood billboards, which are luckily blurred out due to lack of resolution.

The big splash was occurring when I took this photo!

And it was getting higher.

And higher, but the Live View button made the shutter click too late!

Another interesting pattern was happening in the center and so another photo. I think this would have been better if I had zoomed out more or zoomed in a lot more.

And to end the post, a nighttime video! No, the audio is NOT the music it is set to. It is instead a TV show, but parts of the music synchronize with the fountain movement quite well! You can also hear how loud the fountain is from our room.

6 comments:

Mmmm.... beautiful. I'm endlessly enchanted by the Bellagio fountains and always catch a couple evening performances on every Vegas trip. There's so many good recordings posted on youtube, but it just doesn't compare to the power and majesty of the real thing.